I am hard at work on writing a series of science fiction novels. The first of this series, Final Assembly, is already in the hands of the test readers. Precipice, the second installment, is being edited. I have one more plot thread to flesh out, then it will be ready too.

Initially I wrote one story. I wanted to submit to Baen, and they were asking for 100,000 words minimum. So I kept adding to it until I hit that goal. Then I did the smart thing, and hired an editor. While she loved the work, she pointed to the 60% mark, where everything changes. [ERROR ... [More]

I'm from Minnesota, and my wife, May, is from Thailand. We live in Virginia and we often go to a local Vietnamese place. The restaurant is owned and run by a Chinese woman with a Japanese name who was born in Viet Nam then raised in America. Our waitress was born in America from Korean immigrants. It seemed to me, in that moment, that this is what America was all about.

That leads me to how I put together character names. I'll use my main example, which is Luna in 3288, the setting of Final Assembly. Some of the character names represent people I know, lik... [More]